


Don't Take My Sunshine

by SilenceIsGolden15



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo 2k18 [10]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Betrayal, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Medical Procedures, Nightmares, Prompt: Strapped to an operating table, Protective Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-18 20:15:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16125938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceIsGolden15/pseuds/SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: Keith can't run away this time.





	Don't Take My Sunshine

Keith had never noticed how bright the lights in the med bay were, until now, when he was looking right up at them.

He’d woken up here, stretched out on one of the familiar cots. What was unfamiliar were the magnetic white cuffs pinning his wrists and ankles to the cot’s frame. He was in the center of the room, alone, and his panicked breaths bounced back deafening. 

He really tried not to freak out. He was still in the Castle, so he was still safe to some degree. Soon someone would come in and explain what was happening.

He was right about one of those things: after a few minutes the door behind him slid open, and Keith craned his head back to see the upside down image of Coran striding into the room. 

“Coran?” He asked, his voice cracking. “What’s going on?”

“It’s a real shame, you know,” was the cryptic response as Coran crossed the room-- not to Keith’s cot, but instead to a small gathering of handheld canisters in the corner. 

“What is? What are you talking about?”

The door hissed again, and Keith’s heart sank when he saw Allura sweep into the room. Her expression was cold, the same way it had been for the past two weeks since his Blade trial, and his stomach curdled with fear. 

“It’s a real shame,” Coran continued, “I really did like you, Number Four.”

“More of a shame is that the Red Lion was so easily deluded,” Allura cut in, and that rang like a bell through Keith’s mind. 

He hadn’t deluded Red. She’d chosen him.

Hadn’t she?

Coran approached the cot, having attached a hose and a mask to the canister, and Keith instinctively pulled at the cuffs. They didn’t budge, and there wasn’t any sign of Coran’s usual smile on his face.

“What are you doing?” Demanded Keith, tugging on his bindings. “What’s going on?”

Allura was there suddenly, on his left, grasping his forearm with too much strength and he winced as she threatened to splinter the bone. 

“We can’t kill you,” she said casually, and Keith’s heart shuddered to a stop. “Shiro would pitch a fit. But surely you understand why we can’t have a Galra paladin. We already made that mistake once.”

Coran fiddled with something on the table on Keith’s other side. Allura was still talking.

“And the Red Lion is far too stubborn to give up her paladin. But luckily we have another option.”

“What? What is it? Allura!” She rose and walked away, forcing Keith to turn to Coran in his desperation. 

“Coran, what are you gonna do to me?” He picked up his head, strained his neck to see what was on the table, and immediately wished he hadn’t. Beside the mask and the canister, there was a razor, a bone saw, clamps, and a scalpel. 

“It’s quite simple, Number Four,” said Coran as Keith’s heart rate spiked. “The Lions bond with their paladins by accessing a certain part of the brain. Remove that, and poof, no more bond.” He gave Keith a sickly grin. “Of course, it may also turn you into a vegetable, but that’s a chance we’re willing to take.”

“No!” Keith’s blood was rushing in his ears-- he’d never been this scared in his life. “No, don’t take Red away, please! I’ll leave, I won’t be a paladin anymore, just don’t take her away!”

“Can’t do that, I’m afraid.” Coran had the canister back in hand. “She won’t choose another while you’re still available.”

“Then kill me.” Keith couldn’t see through his tears and a sob strangled him. “Just kill me, you don’t have to do this, I won’t fight you.” 

Coran didn’t answer, just began to lower the mask towards his face, and Keith panicked. 

“No!” He howled, thrashing in his binds, shaking his head in hopes Coran wouldn’t be able to put him under, praying desperately for someone to hear him.

With an exasperated huff (the kind she usually reserved for Lance’s pick up lines) Allura stomped over and gripped his hair, painfully pinning him down. 

“Just hold still, mutt,” she snarled.

“Please,” Keith sobbed, not even caring that he was being pathetic, “Please, Allura, don’t do this.”

He continued to beg while she held him down, through the mask that Coran affixed over his nose and mouth. Sweet smelling gas filled it, and before Keith could struggle or fight any more, everything was fading to black. 

* * *

Keith bolted upright and nearly smacked his head on the top of his bunk. The room was dark, merely a square of light beaming in from the open door, and there was a shadow beside his bed and hands on his shoulders. 

“Keith, hey, it’s ok--”

The sudden voice made him panic. He didn’t know who it was and he didn’t care-- they were all out to get him, he didn’t belong here, they were trying to take his Lion away. If they hadn’t already.

“No!” He shoved the hands off of him; their owner fell to the floor with a muttered ‘oof’. “Stay away!”

Gracelessly, still tangled in his blankets, he stumbled out of the bed and darted out the door. The lights flashed in his eyes and he hit the wall, bare feet slipping on the metal floor.

“Keith--”

They were still after him. He had to run. He had to get away.

He ran in a random direction, not knowing anything anymore beyond ‘get away’.

_ Paladin. _

Red. Red! She was still there!

_ Come to me, cub. I will keep you safe. _

He still wasn’t sure where he was going, but somehow he wound up in Red’s hangar anyway. She opened for him immediately and he clambered inside, warmth encasing his shivering form and the particle barrier closing behind him. 

* * *

“What is going on?”

Allura’s voice pierced the air and ricocheted off the walls of the hangar. The chatter between the paladins ceased, and Shiro’s spine tightened. 

“Keith kinda freaked out,” Lance said, unhelpfully, and Shiro grimaced at the look that flared in Allura’s eyes.

“He just had a nightmare,” he cut in, “That’s all.”

Allura rolled her eyes. “I was unaware human nightmares made you run screaming through the halls and wake everyone in the vicinity.”

“He was  _ scared.”  _ The words were bitten out, harsh, and Allura blinked in surprise. “Leave him alone. In fact, all of you go back to bed.”

“Hey, wait--” Hunk began to protest, but Shiro held up a hand to stop him. 

“I can handle it, and honestly the rest of you being here will only make it worse.”

“If he’s in his Lion, and not in his right mind, he poses a danger to us all,” said Allura, imperious. Shiro saw red.

“Allura. I said. I’ll handle it.”

The other paladins were fidgeting anxiously, casting wavering looks at each other, and Allura’s expression was some combination of shock and offense. None of them had seen Shiro like this before.

“All you’re going to do,” he continued hotly, “Is glare at him and imply he’s dangerous because he’s Galra, and that is the absolute last thing he needs right now. So, all of you,  _ out!” _

There was a moment of silence. Everyone stared at him, wide-eyed, and Shiro glared right back at them. 

One by one, they filtered out; Lance first and Allura last, casting him a suspicious look over her shoulder as she went. 

With a cleansing breath, he turned back to Red. When he spoke he made his voice as even and controlled as he could manage. 

“Keith, are you in there?”

Red’s eyes flared gold.

“Can I come in?”

A beat, a pause, and the particle barrier flickered out. 

Inside the cockpit Keith was a small, curled shape in the pilot's seat, still panting slightly from his mad dash down the hall. 

“Sorry I pushed you.”

“It’s alright. I should’ve waited until you were awake.”

A sniffle was his response. Shiro took a few steps forward, stopping when he saw Keith’s shoulders tense. 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Um…” He tried to keep the gesture small, but Shiro still saw when he wiped at his cheeks. “It was dumb. Don’t worry about it.”

“You seemed pretty freaked out.” Two more steps. “And you don’t get scared by nothing.”

“I…”

A final step and Shiro was there, and this time when he knelt Keith went easily into his hold. His back shuddered with each heaving breath. 

“It was about Allura,” he whispered, “And Coran. They had me t-tied down, and--” His voice cracked on him, and Shiro briskly rubbed his back until he could continue. “They were gonna take Red away. ‘Cause I’m Galra.”

Shiro breathed a measured breath to keep the anger from showing.

“That sounds really scary.”

Keith breathed out into his neck. “Yeah.”

“I won’t let anyone hurt you, not even the Princess.”

He let out a puff of air that wasn’t quite a sigh. 

“It’s ok, Shiro. The war is more important. If Allura asks me to leave--” Shiro pulled back, held Keith by his shoulders at arms length. He still looked terrified, eyes wide, cheeks pale. 

“If she asks you to leave,” he said firmly, never breaking eye contact, “I’ll leave with you.”

Somehow, Keith’s eyes widened even further. 

“Shiro--”

“I’m not letting you be alone, Keith. Not again.”

New tears rose in Keith’s eyes, and this time when he fell into Shiro’s embrace, he clutched Shiro just as tightly as Shiro held him. 


End file.
